Introduction

Sunday - June 8, 2014

I’m keeping my real name off this because I want to be able to write about people in my life without worrying about what anyone may think.  Sorcha Kira is gaelic for light dark which seems an appropriate name for me as I learn the Tao.

My first introduction to the Tao Te Ching was in a little book I found on a clearance table at a book store, The Tao of Pooh, written by Benjamin Hoff.  The back cover says, "While Eeyore frets...and Piglet hesitates...and Rabbit calculates...and Owl pontificates...Pooh just is.  And that's a clue to the secret wisdom of the Taoists."  

I had heard of the Tao Te Ching briefly before but it just sounded way to deep for me. Generally in my life I have stayed away from things that require excessive thinking.  I love to read but I enjoy novels over educational books.  I watch TV but I'm more likely to watch The Big Bang Theory or The Mentalist than something on PBS or CNN.  

The Tao of Pooh was perfect for me because it talks of the Tao in an easy to understand way.  It kept it light and fun just like Pooh always has been.  Last week by some fluke I was actually watching PBS and I saw part of show with Wayne Dyer whom I found very interesting.  

I went to my local library to see what they had from him and I found “Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life - Living the Wisdom of the Tao”.  After studying many translations of the Tao, Dr. Dyer goes through each of the 81 passages of the Tao and gives his thoughts on each as well as suggestions of how you can start putting each of these teachings to work in your day to day life.  

At the beginning he says that you should read thru one passage and ponder it, write about it, put it to work in your life before continuing on to the next passage. I opened this blog so I can journal my way thru this journey over the next year as I spend time studying the Tao Te Ching and do my best to make it a part of my life.  

Right now I’m very happy in my personal life.  I dearly love my husband and he loves me.  He is very good to me and makes me feel that I’m the most important person in his life.  

I have a good relationship with the rest of my family as well.  I don’t have a lot of friends but I really enjoy the friends I do have.  I really enjoy socializing but I also really like my down time at home without visitors.

My work life is not so cheery. My boss is a big bosshole.  I made a mistake last fall and ever since that happened he treats me like crap.  It doesn’t matter than I didn’t do it on purpose or that he wouldn’t even know about it if I hadn’t told him.  I screwed up and now I’m getting crap for all kinds of things, anything he can come up with.  

I also work with a couple of looney coworkers.  One of them is an older lady who is ultra-super-sensitive.  She’s part-time in the morning and my student assistant works part-time in the afternoon and sits at the same desk.  My assistant was leaving her office supplies at the desk. Everyday when she came in this one item was on the floor in the corner. One day I asked the older lady if there wasn’t some place on the desk for my assistants things. She said it cluttered up her desk and the only place to keep it was on the floor.  

I got a little frustrated and I think I said something like, “I’m sorry but I thought you could make room for one little book”.  I didn’t yell but I did have a frustrated tone of voice I’m sure.  So she started crying!  Crying for petes sake!  She told my boss that I attacked her and she had to go down the hall to make me stop which is total BS.  Of course he believed her and not me.  Now I’ve been told that if I upset her again I’ll be fired on the spot.  It’s ridiculous so I basically try to not even talk to her at all. But that’s hard for me because I’m a talker.

I’m looking for another job but there aren’t many out there that meet my requirements.  I know partly why I’m being so picky is that I don’t really want a different job.  I work at a university and I love working with the students.  I do my best to help them thru all the pitfalls of a college education.  I don’t want to just work in a random office where I can’t really help people.  So my work life is the source of a lot of stress right now.  

I’m hoping that this study and application of the Tao Te Ching will help me get clear insight into myself to make my life better in both personal and work aspects.  If I can get a more clear vision of what I want and how it all fits into the grand scheme of things I may be more able to deal with the stress of these crazy ass people at work.  

I’m going to start with re-reading The Tao of Pooh.  I enjoyed it the first time and I think the light hearted intro to the Tao is a good place to start.  This blog is where I will come after each reading to write down my thoughts and ideas.  I’ll also be logging my experiences as I try to put these teachings into practice in my life.